To Save A Life
by thatfairyprincesss
Summary: Something strange is happening to Pitch. Will the guardians help him with the problem or abandon him?
1. Rescued

A year after the defeat of Pitch Black, things went back to normal. Children started believing in the guardians, the guardians themselves became more and more powerful as time went on.

Jamie and his friends were as lively as they'd ever was, always excited whenever Jack stopped by for a visit, there would be snow ball fights and sled rides, later on drinking chocolate shakes until they got sick. Sometimes they would be reminded by Toothiana to look after their health and their teeth.

It started out as the usual routine for Jack: spread winter around the world, stop by bunny's warren and cover whatever he could in frost, only to get yelled at for it later with a trail of easter egg bombs in his wake while he tried to escape, stealing cookies from Santa's kitchen; the final stop was usually his home at the pond of Burgess. Before deciding to rest from his visits, he hopped from tree branch to tree branch, laughing with the wind. Those who believed in him and was able to see him heard his laughter through the air as he looped around the forest trees.

Something caught his eye in the corner, he stopped swirling, narrowing his eyes to get a better look at it. It was black dust on the ground, the sizzling sound of sand got to his ears first that caused him to turn and look at it. The sand seemed to just be sitting there, forming a trail back to the other end of the forest. Jack followed it just in case; Pitch might've been defeated but that doesn't mean he was still in his prison; he could've escaped just as easily as the defeat fell upon him.

He followed the sand to the broken bed that Pitch was dragged under. It looked as if it suffered from an explosion, pieces of wood was scattered around the hole of Pitch's home. He tilted an eyebrow, he should probably investigate it, this didn't look right. Did Pitch escape? As a new gaurdian member it was his duty to report any strange findings to North back at the North Pole. He remembered what it was like down there the last time, eerie and dark, creepy shadows that seemed to be alive, watching his every movement as if they were spying on him-it creeped him out. He figured any sane person would get creeped out by something like the dark cavern below. He took a deep breath and dove in.

He floated down, gently as if he was the snowflakes falling around him himself; his feet tapped onto the ground, and as soon as they did so there was ice underneath. He left ice foot prints as he walked around. "Hello?" He called out, "anybody home?"

He swirled his staff around lazily as he examined the empty caverns, he followed the trail of sand the best he could, it was a little confusing when the sand kept merging together with the shadows. It seemed to be leading him down into a maze, he could only hope that it wasn't leading him to his death. He should turn around and head out of there now, but something kept "tugging" at him, his feet wouldn't stop walking or skipping after the sand. It was almost as if the sand and darkness around him was mocking him. A coward, he heard the whispering say; you're a coward if you turn tail now; they even had the nerve to say that he wasn't a real guardian. He'll show them!

Finally, the swirling sand settled down onto a ball in the ground. Curious, Jack stepped a little closely, holding up his staff, getting ready to throw a ball of ice and azure blue energy just in case it was needed at the opponent.

When the sand cleared up, it revealed a small frame of a human boy, he couldn't have been no more than two years old. It seemed as if he was growing smaller and smaller, as if he was disappearing into the sand itself.

"Pitch?" Jack mused, tilting his head. "Is that you? No…" He breathed, "Way."

He walked over to the small form, who scrambled away from him. "It's okay, it's okay." He approached the boy carefully, "I'm not going to hurt you." To show that he was genuine, he sat the staff down beside him, the azure blue energy disappeared as he knelt down on his knees. He reached his hand out, "What happened to you?"

The boy didn't say anything, but he didn't expect an answer in the first place. He looked around the room, it was covered in darkness except for the spot that himself and the little boy was sitting on, underneath them was a gray blue floor. It seemed to be the only spot to retain the least amount of light. When he saw the trail of black sand all around him as if it was his clothing, it dawned on him. The sand was coming from Pitch, and the sand was what was causing him to shrink. It wasn't just the sand, Jack pondered as he examined the ground. He scooped his hand into the sand, pulling out black ooze. Pitch was losing his power due to the children no longer believing in him.

Part of Jack wanted to leave Pitch down here and let him rot to the core; this was his punishment wasn't it? His other side, his guardian side, his protective side wanted to help Pitch and bring him out of there. He knew that if he didn't Pitch was going to not just reduce to nothing, he was going die. It was draining him, it was what turned him into the toddler that he is now. If he was anybody else, he wouldn't leave the toddler alone to rot, right? It made more sense to help the poor thing.

Without waiting for permission, he bent down, picked the toddler up, ignoring the ooze falling around him as he tucked the child into his arms. He turned back around in an attempt to flee the room only to be attacked by the nearest shadows on the walls. He shot energy back at the shadows through his traveling of the maze, protecting the child along the way. He saw the opening that the shadows were cleverly trying to hide from him, with a little help from the summoning of wind, he sped up like a rocket to escape the clutches of the darkness.

Shadows that looked like hands tried to grab at his feet while he took off into the air, it stopped as soon as they were exposed to the sun, crumbling apart into pieces of dust. With a proud smirk, Jack continued on his way to the North Pole. He could only hope that the guardians wouldn't turn their backs on Pitch simply because of the troubles he caused as a villain.

After all.

They were guardians.


	2. Settling Down

Jack flew directly over Santa's work shop, dropping down like a inflated parachute, the frightened bundle still tucked in his arms. The ooze was pouring out all around him, if he didn't hurry Pitch would be nothing but a puddle of…well, ooze.

He ventured down the long winding and twirling maze of the work shop; it wasn't as confusing as pitch's lair, and he supposed it was due to the difference with bright colors, things that could actually be seen. When he came to the crossway in the center, he took off straight down the hall to Santa's office. He bumped into Phil, one of the main yeti's who was treated like a leader by the other yetis, Jack wouldn't be surprised if he was the leader, seeing as how Phil prevented Jack from entering the workshop back when he tried to break in the security.

"Hi Phil," Jack said, Phil raised his arms in the air, side stepping to avoid getting into the ooze dropping onto the floor. He knocked on the door; he remembered the last time when he didn't, Santa started yelling in some language that he didn't understand. The only language Jack was familiar with was Britain and German. The language North spoke was something he barely hears around him.

"Come in," North grunted, Russian accent thick.

"Uh-" Jack sighed, he didn't want to leave a trail of black mess in the office. "I think you should come out instead,"

North turned around in his seat, adjusting his specs against his nose. He tilted his head and an eyebrow when he saw what was in Jack's arms. "Jack, my boy," He stood up quickly, heading over to him cautiously, the ooze was pouring into a puddle of black mess under the winter spirit's feet. "What's happened? Why are you carrying this….this blob?"

"That's just it, North," Jack removed his hand to show the 'blob's' face, "It's not a blob, it's …."

Jack didn't have to say the rest. The appearance of the boy's face was enough to make North jump back in surprise, the sand swirling from around the child's frame was an obvious answer as to who the blob was. The only thing North could ask to this was; "Why?"

Jack wasn't sure what he meant at first. "Why is he a blob of ink, or why did I rescue him from his own punishment?"

"Why is he blob of ink?" North asked, ignoring the second question. It would be cruel for any of them to leave someone like that to die. Nobody deserved that type of punishment. They were gaurdians. Protecting is what they do best!

"He's losing power, North." Jack said. "I think the nightmares have also been eating away at him when they dragged him down there."

North clicked his tongue, shaking his head, "That's not good."

"Do you think we can save him?" Jack asked, lifting his ooze and sand covered hands toward's the giant man before him.

"Let us go to meeting chambers," North said, stepping around Jack and the mess pooling onto the floor. "See if Man In Moon have answer. If he does he be saved, if he does not, there's not much else we can do for him."

Jack didn't like that answer, but at least it was an answer. He sighed, following North to the meeting room. The world globe was spinning around as always, sparkles of yellow and white glittering across the countries. Some of the lights were going out, but as soon as they went out another light showed up in it's place. Jack was always amazed by the globe every time he saw it. It was as bright as one of those glistening snow globes that he traveled with, only there was no snow on the inside of it.

Jack turned, looking for North who seemed to vanish while he was distracted by the globe. There was a flash of light spread across the sky after he pulled down a cranberry red lever. Jack used his hands as a pair of sunglasses when the mixed aurora beam took off across the sky as if it was a rainbow.

Three hours after the aurora beams were summoned, the guardians showed up. First was Bunnymund, and as usual, the air grew thick around Jack and the six foot tall pooka.

"Frost," Bunny grunted.

"Kangaroo." Jack nodded his head. There were no longer any rough feelings towards the rabbit, (and vice versa) but he still kept his distance from him unless spoken to by him. Bunny didn't bother to retort with "I'm not a bloody Kangaroo". Surprisingly, Bunny ignored him. Jack shrugged. Oh well, he had better things to be doing than arguing with a stupid mutant kangaroo.

Sandy was next. He appeared next to Jack and Bunny with a poof of goldenrod orange smoke. He looked towards the blob in Jack's arms, a question mark above his head followed by a bunch of other symbols for his speaking; he shrugged his shoulders pointing at the blob.

"Oh?" Jack said, he nodded. "Yeah, this is Pitch."

The only thing left hovering over Sandy's head was a question mark.

"I know," Jack sighed.

"HI!" Came the loud panicking shout of Toothiana, "Sorry I'm late. What's going on?!"

"Good-" North began. "Now that everyone here, we can begin. We have problem." He waved his hands at the ooze in Jack's hand.

"I see that," Bunny grumbled. "But how and why."

"It's pitch, Bunny." Jack said. He braced himself for the worse.

"And?" Bunny simply said.

Jack wasn't too surprised when Bunny sounded like he didn't care. He probably didn't. "He's dying. Isn't there a way for us to help?"

"I say the old bastard deserves it," Bunny growled. "Sides, doesn't look like there's much we can do for 'em anyway."

"Of course you'd say something like that!" Jack snarled.

"Enough!" Before Bunny and Jack could get into another argument, North stomped on his feet. "MIM have final say of this."

Everyone silenced as a glittering beam of light shot down from the sky. The melting bundle in Jack's arms was lifted into the air, carried by the moonlight. It sat there in the swirling white rays, the ooze started to solidify back into a humanoid form, he started to gain color in his skin again, instead of the black that he was turning into it reverted to the gray blue that his skin used to be. He grew hair on the top of his head, and was given a black t-shirt with a pair of gray blue jeans to match, small enough to fit the size of a child. The light was so intensifying that everyone watching ended up using their hands as a pair of sunglasses to keep from becoming blind.

The child began to drop to the floor once the transformation was finished. North reached his hand out; the child was small enough to fit neatly into the palm of his hand. As soon as he had been collected the moonlight disappeared.

North grinned at the irritated pooka before him. "Man In Moon has spoken. We help Pitch."

"Well then," Bunny snarled. "You do that. I don't want any part of this." He turned and hopped out the room, door slamming shut behind him.

Toothiana winced. "Oh dear, he didn't sound too happy about this."

A bunch of pictures showed up above Sandy's head. It was a picture of a casket followed by Pitch's face, then a thumbs down with a gigantic hand over his head.

"You said it Sandy," Tooth sighed. "Nobody deserves death, not even him."

"In case you guys forgotten," Jack said, "Pitch did destroy every last one of his family members so of course he'd be bitter towards him. But you guys are right, nobody deserves death no matter what kind of wrong-doings they've done, unless they're hunted down and killed anyway by a angry mob."

"Exactly," Tooth said. "Something like this must be looked into! It's not a mob that's killing him, it's the loss of his powers!"

Jack nodded. "Yes. But what I need to know next is how do we look after him?"

"Simple, just like any other child!" Toothiana said turning to North. "Right?"

"Indeed-" North said. "But we not be one to look after." He turned to Jack. Toothiana also looked at him, and so did Sandy. Jack felt like a cornered rat. He backed away, looking up at the Moon for answers. He felt heat in his chest, the moonlight was sprinkling down onto him. He felt tingling all over.

"Ohhhh no." Jack shook his head. "no no no no no no no! You guys expect me to do all of this by myself?!"

"Not completely." North said. "MIM think you guide him. How to say this without awkward…"

Toothiana giggled; she knew where this was going.

"But guys-are you forgetting something?!" Jack shrieked. "I'm still a kid myself! I don't know squat about looking after a child. I'm the gaurdian of fun, I'm not a parent! You guys…."

"We'll help you Jack," North said, glad that Jack picked up what was being asked of him on his own. "We are not that cruel to just stand back and watch you do everything on your own. But the main care taker is you."

"Why?" Jack sighed.

"Do not know," North said. "That man in moons decision."

"Oh," Jack said, looking back up at the moon again. The moon became silent, the tingling sensation all throughout his body left him as quick as the moonlight itself that was disappearing. "But I've never done this before. Isn't there some kind of how to book for this out there?"

Toothiana chuckled as North replied with: "I know just the thing, follow me to library, da?"

Needless to say, Jack was a little embarrassed… he was, however, relieved that he didn't have to do this whole guardian/parenting thing by himself, because after Bunny stomped out he was sure that that's what he was going to end up doing, he even believed that the others wouldn't bother to help at all, and was surprised that North asked MIM's decision upon the situation.

* * *

Once in the Library, North pulled out several books, one of them being a "Guide to Parenting" book off the shelf. He tossed it to Jack, who caught it in his hands like a football. Child Pitch had been left with Toothiana while North and Jack went to look at information they would need for child care.

"Here we go," North said in his thick accent, he gave a hearty santa clause laugh. "Book be helpful to you, da?"

"Yeah, hopefully," Jack said. They turned and went back to the meeting room; Toothiana gave Pitch back to Jack, he was sound asleep thanks to Sandy's dream sand.

"Personally speaking I think this good thing," North said as he watched the sleeping child in Jack's arms. "This give Pitch fresh start."

"Agreed," Toothiana said. "Oooh I can't wait until his teeth start coming in!"

Sandy rolled his eyes and left the room as soon as Toothiana started chattering away about teeth. Jack smirked, "Hopefully we have some chew toys for this kid or something, I'm reading in here that kids mouths are in pain when they start crying a lot for seemingly no reason to everybody else."

"I might have some toys at the palace." Tooth said. She jumped suddenly and flew off while screaming, "BE RIGHT BACK!" At the top of her lungs.

Jack sighed with a roll of his eyes. Toothiana acted so scatter brained one moment, then motherly and mature the next. He looked down at the sleeping Pitch with a grin, "I guess it's just you and me for now, eh buddy?"

The only answer he got was the sucking of a thumb.

Jack smiled.

* * *

"Here!" Toothiana was piling one item after another on top of Jack.

"And here!"

"And this one!"

"And this one!"

"THEN THIS ONE!"

"And one more!"

He was underneath a pile of toys and other children needs. He didn't even WANT to know the reason why Toothiana had all these items to begin with, unless all those little fairy helpers were her children. It was quite a startling thought.

"GAH!" Came the surprised shout from underneath all the supplies.

"You're welcome!" Toothiana called out as she took off back to the Palace again, "I'd stick around and chat more, but I'm on a tight schedule!"

Thankfully North had taken child Pitch before he was crushed underneath the ton's of supplies. He approached with a shake of his head and a smirk. "Need help?"

"Mfmfmffmh."

North left, within a second later he gathered at least two yeti's from their duties to help Jack with the toys and other much needed children and baby supplies. It was taken to the room near by, a room that wasn't occupied and looked as if it had been eating dust.

There was a snap of his fingers, with a wave of his hand the room was brightly colored like the rest of his work shop. The yeti's dropped the toys near the far side of the room, organizing them for Jack seeing as it being too much for anyone to try and do on their own. North handed Jack the sleeping infant, giving him at least two different types of pacifiers for the infant to suck on once he starts wailing for being hungry or upset because of teeth pain.

"Good luck, Jack." North gave Jack a pat on the back, turning to exit.

"Thanks," Jack nodded, cradling the infant over his shoulders gently, "I'll need all the luck I can get."

Once North was out of ear shot, Jack sat down on the large mattress, he didn't bother to place the infant in the crib even though he was asleep, he wanted to examine the small life form in his hands before putting him down. He was so tiny...he was nothing like the two year old that he rescued from the dark caverns of Pitch's old home, he was amazed at how little the baby was. He was amazed even more at the fact that this baby used to be a full grown Pitch Black, a villain hell bent on taking over the world with a second dark age. He was so bitter and evil, but had been reduced to this after his defeat. He was no more that villain...he looked up and down the infant but didn't see a trace of the man he was familiar with. All of the energy from back then dispersed. This was Man In The Moon's doing.

For that he was grateful, because Pitch didn't have to suffer anymore. He didn't have to die. He seemed like a man that was just misunderstood, he didn't seem evil at all to Jack; back then he kept talking about being tired of hiding, wanting to be believed in. Jack knew deep in the bottom of his heart what that felt like, and he almost accepted that offer to him when he ran into Pitch in Antarctica.

Cradling the baby towards his chest, he lowered his head, there was some kind of…deep feeling settling down in the bottom of his heart that he couldn't explain. He didn't know what it was, but it hurt. It ached. It was tight, as if his heart was going to explode. He didn't have the energy to ask himself why he felt this way; instead, he ended up crying.


	3. Nightmare

**Three Years Later.**

* * *

It was dark, cold and windy, there were rain clouds out in the sky, thundering flashes of white every now and then. Instead of rain, however, it was snow flurries. They were having the first snow storm that they hadn't have had in a long while. A lot of the guardians living there assumed that it was Jack's doing, but he had no part in creating the storm that suddenly started.

In fact, Jack was sleeping, curled up under the blankets, legs sprawled out as he snored the night away. It's been a while since he last seen sleep, ever since he took Pitch in under his wing he hadn't been able to get any. Now that Pitch was a little older, at least three years of age, it's gotten a little easier for him to take care of him AND himself.

The work shop was pretty empty; the lights had dimmed, North closed the shop up for preparation of resting, he sent all the Yeti's home an hour ago, they usually stay at the shop pretty late until it started storming like crazy outside.

Pitch had grown quite a bit, but he was still just a little one, his height came up to about Jack's knees. He tossed and turned, trying his best to ignore the thundering. He was unable to sleep. A nightmare, shadows were crawling all around his skin, whispering creepy things in his ears. It felt as if his skin was burning from the black crawling around all over him. It made him shoot upright from fright, he squeaked, jumping out of the bed backing away from the shadows.

"Get away from me!" Pitch screamed.

_You can't escape from us… you belong to us.. . _

"No!" Pitch cried.

_You are our prisoner…you are a failure to us.. .. _

"NO!" Now he was really crying. The voices were freaking him out; why wouldn't they leave him alone? He curled up into a ball, his eyes wide as he cradled his head into his hands. The voices got louder and louder, hoarser and hoarser, until it began to sound like blades cutting through the depths of his ears, it hurt badly, the sounds of blades soon turned into the sounds of nails being scratched against a chalk board or a piece of metal.

_.. Serve us… _

The shivering Pitch on the ground cracked one eye open.

The beast in front of him was like something straight out of a horror movie. It looked like a zombie of sorts, the undead, something that couldn't even be considered human. It might've even been a demon. Maybe it was nothing at all? But that couldn't be right, it had to be a something.

Perhaps it was just that-a _something_. Something that was dripping in slime, grime and crimson blood, something that was missing a pair of eyes that needed to be in the placement of those deepened eye sockets with the torn skin, the face itself looked like it was a skeleton with very little flesh left, the only thing that reminded a person looking at this that it used to be a person or some kind of 'humanoid' form was the fact that it had peeling muscle around the skeleton.

The words 'serve us' echoed in his head, running around in circles until he grew dizzy from the rushed murmuring. The pain became too much, he couldn't bare it any longer. He let out the world's loudest scream he could manage.

* * *

Jack jumped at the sound of loud screaming, it was such a shriek that it caused him to crawl out of bed immediately, grabbing his staff by the door along the way. He didn't bother to turn any of the lights on, he followed the sound of the voice to his adopted son's bedroom. He skidded to a halt, flipping his light switch on quickly. He frowned at the sight, eyebrows furrowing in concern. Pitch was curled up into himself in the middle of the floor crying his eyes out…it reminded him of the exact same position he found him in three years ago.

He swallowed hard, "Hey," He said, kneeling down next to him, "What's wrong?"

"I had a nightmawer" Pitch replied, his large yellow eyes reminding Jack of a pouting kitten. This kid was just too adorable.

"What was it about?" Jack asked, only to get a shake of the head for an answer from Pitch. "C'mon now-if you don't tell me, I'll never be able to help you with this. Don't you want your dad to help you?"

Pitch nodded.

"So… let's talk about it, " Jack said, slowly looking around the room. "But would you feel better if we talk about it in my room instead of yours?"

Again, Pitch nodded. Smiling softly, Jack bent forward, scooping his son up in his arms, he went down to his bedroom. Once he sat Pitch down on the bed they continued their conversation from before. Pitch told him about the nightmare, stopping to cry and hiccup every once in a while. Jack was surprised at the information that was just told to him. Pitch was afraid that he would abandon him. At least, that's what it sounded like from the explanation of the child.

"Pitch," Jack said carefully, holding the child around his shoulders. "I would never abandon you. I love you,"

"But the dweam" Pitch sobbed. "It was bad, I was bad, you were mad at me and you left me. I gots hurt people."

Jack frowned; was Pitch remembering bits and pieces of his old life, or were these just nightmares? He should bring it up to North tomorrow.

"It's just a dream," Jack said, lifting his hand up to Pitch's temple, he brushed some spiked bangs off to the side.

"But if it's just dweam," Pitch said quietly, "Then how come Sandmans use them too? They has to be real…right?"

"No, buddy" Jack shook his head, "That's not how it works. Sandy just creates, he'll put you to sleep, then he creates whatever peaceful dream he can think of for you to help you sleep. Nightmares come from personal fears, they do not come from Sandy. If you like," He said, pausing after a while to pick Pitch up and sit him in his lap, "I can get Sandy to help you fall asleep again. He'll make sure you have nothing but good dreams."

"Weally?" Pitch squealed.

"Really really," Jack winked at him. He stood up to get Sandy, but was stopped at a tug from the back of his shirt. He turned, "yes?"

"Can I sweep wityou?" Pitch asked, uncertainty shining in his bright yellow eyes.

"Sure thing kiddo," Jack replied, ruffling Pitch's already messed up hair. He got a laugh out of that, which was a plus, it was better than hearing him crying or screaming. He didn't waste another minute, he left to look for Sandy.

* * *

It took great effort to find the goldenrod orange man made of sand, but soon he was found, he was snoring, head drooped forward as he hovered near the kitchen with a chocolate egg nog pouring onto the floor as if he had forgotten about it. Jack shook Sandy's shoulders to wake him up, he felt bad for startling him. Sandy took a double-take moment when he realized that the person standing beside him was Jack and not a random enemy or someone coming to annoy him. At least, that's what he HOPED was the case with Jack. With someone as mischievous as Jack, he couldn't be too certain what was up the trickster's sleeves.

Jack smirked, "Hey pal, sorry for waking you up, but I need your help, think you can put Pitch to sleep?" He asked, pointing his thumb backwards.

Sandy nodded, giving Jack a thumbs up symbol with a gigantic hand hovering above his head. With a snap of his fingers, Sandy was gone in a 'poof!'. Jack shook his head, following Sandy down the crossway towards his bedroom.

"Alright Pitch," Jack said with a grin. "Lights out!"

"Da-" Pitch didn't get to finish when Sandy tossed his dream sand at him. "ddyy.."

Jack nodded, pleased with the sound of snoring. "Thanks buddy," He said, earning himself a nod in reply from Sandy with a 'check mark' symbol above his head. Sandy floated away, Jack waved at him, jumping back into the bed. He gently shoved Pitch aside as he settled in again for sleep. He pulled the little Pitch onto his chest.

The next day, Jack decided to visit North and ask about whatever it was that was bothering Pitch. He was also very bothered by what was bothering him. If Pitch was remembering his old life, they could be in trouble. Hell, Pitch himself could be in serious trouble if that was the case, hopefully it was not the case. He spotted Toothiana in the air shouting orders to the little fairies around her.

They were squealing and flapping their wings so quickly that it was hard for Jack to keep up with them, it made him wonder how she was able to keep up with them, then again she was also quiet fast, and did everything at an incredible speed. Jack admired her talent to be quick and accurate. Sometimes he wished he could do the same.

Shaking his head at the thought, he looked down at Pitch, who looked back up with him with his thumb in his mouth. Jack had tried everything that he could think of to make Pitch stop sucking his thumb, but nothing worked. He tried hot sauce, he tried socks, he tried soap. Nothing helped, Pitch still placed his thumb right back in his mouth even if he was crying and screaming at the awful taste of what was on his thumb at the top of his lungs.

"Hey T-" Jack was interrupted when all the fairies turned, then Jack cursed himself for not just approaching her. He should've learnt his lesson from the last time he visited her, but guess he forgotten. The fairies swarmed him, cooing at his teeth. Some of them were cooing at the baby's new teeth that grew in, the baby himself was too confused at all the fuss to even think about wailing from the random attention of strangers. Not just any strangers either, but strange fairies.

"GIRLS!" Toothiana shrieked. "DON'T. DESCRACE. THE. UNIFORM."

All the fairies stopped swarming, they went back to where Toothiana was with apologetic chirps that sounded like they were saying sorry. Jack shrugged, "no big dea-Hey!" He started when Baby Tooth buzzed around him, flying around his head. She stopped, nuzzling his cheek before she went back to her mother. "Nice to see ya too, Baby Tooth. Been a while hasn't it?"

Baby Tooth nodded with a 'umm-hmm!' type of chirp, she was smiling with pride.

"I'm sorry about the swarm," Toothiana said with a small chuckle. "What can I do for you, Jack?"

"I was wondering if you could look after Pitch for me, I need to talk about something important," Jack explained, Toothiana flew over and snatched Pitch right out of his hands, she was squealing instantly at him.

"Ohhhh let me look at his new teeth!" Toothiana squeaked, swirling the laughing child around in the air. She kissed both of his cheeks, poking him in different areas causing more shrieks of laughter from the child. Jack blinked at the scene before him, surprised at the random display of affection. He really shouldn't be so surprised, this was Toothiana after all, but he was still caught off guard.

"Oh." Toothiana stopped, holding the baby over her shoulders, "Sorry! Sure, I don't mind watching him for you!"

"Thank you," Jack sighed in relief. Toothiana seemed to always be too busy for everything, he waved at her. "I'll be back soon, Pitch, be good for daddy!" He didn't stick around, he took off in a stream of snow.

"What do you say to you and me having a little tour of this lovely palace," Toothiana asked, tickling Pitch's stomach; that earned her a fit of loud giggles. "with a little bit of fun while we're at it?"

"Yea," Pitch nodded. He was grinning a smile so wide that it made Toothina wonder if that was hurting the kid. She chuckled, flying into the air as she swirled the kid around in her arms.

* * *

"So you're telling me that Pitch is regaining his memories?" North hummed.

Jack shrugged, scratching his head, "I don't know. It sure seems like it, what do we do? Isn't there a way to stop it?"

"There isn't much we can do," North replied, he was sad, yet hopeful at the situation, "the only thing we can do is keep an eye out for him, make sure he's safe."

"Agreed," Jack nodded. "I'll let you know of anything strange going on around him as soon as possible."

"Good, then it settled," North held up a tray of cookies. "Cookies?"

"Nah, I think I'll pass," Jack gave North a playful salute when he took off out the office. "I ate so much of them at the last Christmas dinner this year that I don't think I want to look at them again for another year. Thanks though!"

North shook his head as he watched Jack go. It was strange to see someone as young as he was as a parent now. It was also hard at the same time to try and see Jack as an adult when he still acted young, was still immature at some things. Then again, his center was fun. He chuckled, going back to work on creating ideas for toys as well as new ice sculptures.

* * *

"This is what you've been reduced to?" Said a raspy voice. There was a long, awkward pause before he said anything else.

"What a pity… "


	4. Breaking Ice

Aster E Bunnymund loves children. But, he wasn't sure what to make of this child that Jack randomly dropped off in his warren so that he could spread winter around the world without the worry of Pitch getting in the way or hurting himself on the trip.

Bunnymund wasn't sure why he even accepted it, he figured that what got to him was the toddler sucking on the pacifier in his mouth (for some godforsaken reason there was a skull on the pacifier that he sucked on), and those large yellow eyes. The eyes were like a pouting kittens.

Jack placed the child down, kneeling to his height level. "I have to go and create some snow now," He said, patting the child on the head.

"How come can't go wiff yew?" He whined, spitting the pacifier out.

"Because it'd be too much work on my end to look after you," Jack said slowly, he gave the young Pitch a stern look yet it was mixed with a gentleness as well to let the child know that he wasn't in trouble. He ruffled the child's hair vibrantly, hand moving down to stroke his cheeks. "Don't worry, daddy will be back ok? Be good for Bunnymund."

"but da-"

"Uh uh, none of that," Jack shook his finger at him, "Behave."

There was a pause. Then a quiet, "Okay…"

With a playful salute to Bunnymund, Jack flipped into the air and soared over the roof of the work shop, there was a burst of wind to help him gain speed. With his job of spreading winter around the world there was no telling when Jack would return or not. He could take as long as anywhere from two to three days. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Pitch started wailing at the top of his lungs, he plopped down onto the grass, tiny fists over his eyes. Bunnymund sighed, what has he gotten himself into?

He kneeled down next to the child, who seemed to be afraid of him, he scooted away and wailed even louder, causing Bunnymund to flatten his ears against his head in order to block out the ear-shrieking noise.

"Hey, it's alright, your pops will be ba-" He was ignored, there was more shrieking. Bunnymund stood back up rubbing the back of his head. He wasn't sure what to do. The child was deathly afraid of him for some reason. He couldn't figure out why.

Looking up, he saw one of the egglets jump out of the pool following the rest of the herd towards the large egg-like statues near the center of the Warren. Bunnymund grinned, then went to get some art supplies, gathering a bunch of the egglets as he did so. He approached the wailing toddler carefully and slowly, setting the egglets and paintset down. Kids loved to be creative, right? Hopefully this will work; it had to work or he'd be stuck with a headache for however long the days that Jack Frost would be gone for his job.

The child stopped wailing, taking a small peek at the eggs and paint sets that were dropped in front of him. "What's that…?"

"Eggs fer easta," Bunnymund said, picking up a paint brush. "Would ya like t-a learn how to paint 'em?"

Pitch nodded.

An hour turned into two to three hours….soon Pitch was exhausted from painting eggs all day long, but he was happy as well. He learned his colors, he learned to create shapes and things like that, he learned how to properly hold a paint brush and decorate things. Little pitch was yawning, rubbing sleep out of the eyes. Bunnymund had a small smile as he bent down to pick Pitch up. He gave Pitch a fresh bath and warm dinner (carrot soup with curry spices with bread), lowered him into the bed and tucked him in.

"Night night…" Pitch yawned.

"Good night ya little ankle bitah," Bunnymund said, closing the door quietly behind him.

* * *

AN: I know all these chapters are short, but I'm also trying to keep the short chapters descriptive enough for these small fluff moments. When it gets more dark later on in the story it will definitely be longer. For now, all the fluff moments are in short chapters, I think it'd be better that way.

Let me know in the reviews what you would like to see Pitch go through in his adventures as a child with the guardians!


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